spring isolators

i know when i had my 90 limited i put spacers in the front and all i had to do was remove the snubbers and then the springs came right out. now i own a 93 country and bent a pipe wrench and did not budge these things this time. i know that the correct way is to drop the front end but am having a hell of a time removing the control arm bolts i already snapped enough wrenches to try to get these damn things off becouse i wanted to replace all the bushings but i don't have stock in craftsman tools and the isolators need changed becouse the passenger side isolator is just about gone. so why did the 90 just unscew and the 93 will not budge....

Man it's been a REALLY long day but...I haven't a clue what you're talking about. I've installed spacers on 2 XJ's and never used a pipe wrench. If you're trying to remove the control arms to allow droop...then some heat and penetrant will help tons. When I did the spacers on my 96 I unbolted the UCA's. When I did the spacers on my 01, I didn't even unbolt them at all. I unbolted the sway bar from the top of the link, two bolts on the bottom of the shocks, used a spring compressor and had a husky friend stand on the axle. If this doesn't help I am sorry. I'm just not sure what you're using a pipe wrench on.

ok, a coil spring isolator goes between the top of the coil spring and the body of the XJ. that rubber thing.
what you're talking about (i think) is the bumpstop. inside the coil spring, so when you bottom out, you don't cut the tires on the fenders. on some XJs they unscrew while on others they're like pushed up in there.

as far as control arm bolts, an acetylene torch is the way to heat them up. the kind of torch commonly sold at hardware stores to sweat copper pipe just isn't going to cut it.
if you're snapping wrenches, i bet they're 3/8ths drive socket wrench parts. go up to half drive and you probably won't break anything.
use a breaker bar when removing stuff like control arm bolts. if you use a socket wrench, you're just asking for broken finger bones.

good luck!

on my 90 the whole metal stem and ruber snubber unscrewed and removing the spring was a piece of cake, the sockets are 1/2 drive craftsman and the box ends are sk wrenches and now i just stripped my 1/2 drive craftsman ratchet had a steal pipe on the end trying to act like a breaker bar. i know it was dumb but i loaned out my breaker bar to a friend and he "lost it", the other problem is i don't have a torch just a little gas one, won't that work good enough?

I have used MAP gas to loosen seized fasteners along with a wider patterned torch tip. You can get the torch and gas at your local Home Depot for @$20.00 in the plumbing section. the propane in the blue bottle does not get hot enough. Map gas comes in a yellow bottle and costs a few dollars more. Your bushing will start on fire and stinck the place up.

thank you i will look into getting a map bottle and trying that, i already went through two cans of pb blaster and that usally works great but this xj is immune to all the treatments i tried so far. . just empty every pocket, don't like the saying becouse i love the xj's but... there might be truth,.

Got the name of the type of torch that I used with the mapp gas. it's called a turbo torch. Don't now the price but it is way cheaper than a welding set up. not that buying a welding set up is bad but if you cant weld and are on a fixed budget go with the turbotorch. In referance to money and xj's, I'm reminded of a saying that I heard while refinishing boats. "A boat is a hole in the water that is surrounded by wood, metal or fiberglass, that you pour alot of money into". All for the love of the sport.

dynamite44 said:

what you're talking about (i think) is the bumpstop. inside the coil spring, so when you bottom out, you don't cut the tires on the fenders. on some XJs they unscrew while on others they're like pushed up in there.

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I think this sums it up pretty well. The change was a Chrysler change. I don't remember what year they made the switch, but if on a '93 they wont unscrew then it would make sense to see if they are the press-in type before you destroy the front end of the vehicle trying to unscrew something that doesn't unscrew.

Never EVER assume that because it was one way on some XJ you owned in the past, it's always the same on every year of XJ. There were a LOT of subtle changes under the sheet metal over the years.

I just unbolted the driver side of the sway bar, stuck a scissor jack between the frame and the axle and spread them apart. There was more than enough room to take the spring out, and I used a spring compressor if that helps. The front was as easy as lard is greasy!

I think that it was during the 1992 model year that Jeep started to WELD the bump stop cups on to the leg. That is why it can not un-screw. (welded on). Just like the header panels mount differently in later years, also.

thanks guy's, i started to work on it today. only got the front pass side done have to tackle the other side and hopefully the rear tomorrow, it sucks to have to do this all outside and at 30deg. i cant do the same as i used to since i had a lower back fusion its a biotch to get up and down on the frozen ground.then i hard time getting the damn bushings in the control arms didn't realize how much rust likes rubber and had really crappy instuctions for the bushings the kit i got has a little raised edge and the would not go into the sleave don't know if they sent me the wrong kit, had to sand the littleedge down just to get them to slide in still not sure how or what all the extra's are for my mounts are not wide enough to get in all the peices i think belong in, i know it would be hard to ask for help becouse i probably not telling something right, but when you get bushing in do i need like another poly washer on the other side? the lower i figured out but the upper arms i just dont know. if somebody could give me some advice it would be great. thanks lyle